LIFE IN 2020 IS RUNNING IN THE HEAT ⋆ FINDING FINISH LINES

IT TAKES SOME TIME AND DEDICATION EACH SUMMER TO ADJUST TO RUNNING IN THE HEAT. WE KNOW IT’S GOING TO BE ROUGH. WE DO IT ANYWAY. LIVING IN 2020 FEELS A WHOLE LOT LIKE LEARNING TO RUN IN THE HEAT, RIGHT?

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It’s so hot outside!

Man, are you still doing your long workouts outside?

With the heat and humidity peaking all around the country right now, I’m finding myself needing to do a full psyche up before heading out and running in heat. Is this you, too?

Like, “Alright, you can do this. Walk when you need to walk. You can hop off the bike for a minute if you need to. Hydrate. Hydrate. Hydrate.”

I even struggled in the pool the other day because the water was so warm in the middle of the afternoon when I could get a reservation. It was all so much that I ripped off my cap about 500 meters in and tried to swim with my hair flopping in my face and still couldn’t cool down.

That is in the water!

So it’s just hard to go running in heat.

There is a way to make it less tolerable, though, but it’s not the answer that anyone ever wants:

You just have to do it more.

Oh that one is always hard. Don’t you wish we could just find a hack for some of these things? Like 5 ways to crush running in heat. There is a reason that one of the easiest ways for websites to entice you to click on their story as you scroll is to title it something like, “Three easy ways to…” or “Simple hacks to…” or “You won’t believe this quick fix to…”

Sorry, I don’t have that for you.

And if we are honest, that’s not really what we want, right? I know it feels like we want those cheats, but you know and I know that we really don’t. We do this because it’s hard.

Check out: Break The Chains: Secrets Runners Know About Motivation

Yup, in order to heat acclimate, you need two to four weeks of consistent work in these hotter temps.

According to one study, after 10 days of steady heat acclimatization, your capacity to sweat nearly doubles?

Doubles!

Of course, you sweat so that as your sweat evaporates, you cool.

So imagine that capacity to cool yourself (in conditions that aren’t oppressively humid) increasing so much so quickly.

Your body is ready to adjust to the new stress of running in heat if you can just get your brain to wrap all the way around how much it’s going to hurt, and get yourself out there.

Slow it down. Take it easy. Know that running in heat is going to be hard. Face it. Hydrate. And put one foot in front of the other.

The only way to make running in heat more tolerable is to do it.

I think it’s like so much that we are facing right now, right?

If you also have school-aged kids at home, you are probably like most of the country, trying to figure out just how on earth you are going to face the coming school year.

How do I make these really hard decisions about what is right for my family and my community when all of the options are uhh…less than ideal, and zero information seems all that clear to me?

How can I possibly homeschool these kids? I know the experience wasn’t so fantastic in the spring. How can I do it again?

Well, it’s just like running in heat, Dear Athlete.

You have done it. It was hard. You wanted it to end. You questioned your ability. While you were in it, you swore you wouldn’t willingly do it again. None of it was pretty. All of it was a struggle.

And yet, you find yourself reaching into the closet for your running shoes after spending some time examining homeschool curriculum and talking parent co-ops.

Because just as you have adjusted to running in heat in previous summers, you can adjust to anything that this wacky, unfair, hard season of our lives has to offer us.

You are brave enough to face each morning, take a look at your training plan, lace up, and head out and build an ability to take on heat.

You know your heart rate is going to be higher.

You are armed with the information that your pace will be slower.

You are ready for what comes as you do the work that you have to do so you can eventually get back to the running you loved when it was cooler.

Before running in the heat, running made you feel free, powerful, capable, and steady.

And right now, in our lives outside of training, we have to wake up brave enough to face our new challenges. We can know with runner’s confidence that we can build an ability to tackle whatever the day brings us.

Because the only way to the other side of this thing is through.

Living in 2020 is just running in the heat in so many areas of our lives.

Thank God you’re a runner.

Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button if you haven’t already and be sure to share this podcast with your brave women athlete friends.

Hey as a final thought, do you have any homeschool experience? I’m a little in the weeds right now figuring out everything we need for our girls and I’d love some advice! If you have resources or thoughts to share, I’d be so grateful if you’d reach out on Facebook or Instagram or even email me at Sally@FindingFinishLines.com. That’s a little random, right? It’s 2020. Why not?

Until next time, carry on women of valor!